20 - 25 March

It was a four hour bus journey to Sihanoukville, a small beach side resort near Phnom Penh. We stayed in a place called Monkey Republic that had mvie rooms and a pool table, which made up for the scabby rooms. Monkey Repiblic was a two minute walk to the main beach, Serendipity Beach.

It was really long and sandy beach, a lot like most other beaches, but the sand was the softest sand I had ever stepped foot on. All up the beach there were family run bars all trying to out do one another and pull the tourists in.

You couldn't sit two minutes here without people tying to sell you stuff or people coming over begging, you had to have a lot of patience.

We didn't really do much in Sihanoukville but relax. I was very ill here though for a couple of days amd had to spend it in bed.

One night we went to watch the end of the six nations whilst I was still in recovery at another beach further up the way called Victory. The bars were ok, but they were full of horrid men looking for women to buy or in some cases children. We saw a lot of paedophiles trying to pay for children, it was horrible. We wanted to do something, but what could we do, we were the only people pretty much round there that weren't paying for sex.

Another evening we went to see Tropic Thunder at the big cinema there and Adam had a taranruala crawl up the back of his neck. He told me at the time it was a cockroachm but later told me therwise. I was on spider patrol after that. I rang my mum to wish her happy mother's day the same night and gave my belated birthday wishes to my niece Ellen. It was lovely speaking to them and my slightly tipsy sister, Shona.

We met a nice couple from Kent called Chris and Amanda that we spent a couple of nights with and found out that they will be working in Cairns the same time we are there, so we will have to meet up.

The poverty levels in Sihanoukville were shocking. It was a fantastic beach and I had a great time there, but everytime I said no to someone begging I felt terrible. I knew there was little support for these people and they couldn't work because they had limbs missing or a lot of children to care for.

One night Adam and I went out for tea and had a feast of BBQ fish and prawns, we pretty much devoured the whole thing. As we were sitting in there a young mum and her child came over and asked for money, we said no and then she asked if she could finish our meal, which I thought was finished. We gave her the palte and watched her eat the whole fish, bones and head and all. I have never felt so wasteful.